Despite weak credit growth, SBI paid 23 percent more in advance tax at about Rs 1,794 crore for the March quarter compared to around Rs 1,456 crore a year-ago, they said, adding that SBI paid Rs 1,425 crore in the December quarter.

Similarly, LIC paid Rs 1,470 crore, an increase of 15 percent over Rs 1,280 in the same period last year. For the full fiscal, the insurance behemoth has paid Rs 5,880 crore as against Rs 5,100 crore in the last financial year.

Advance tax is a system of staggered payment of taxes by high earning corporates and individuals spread across four quarters. In the second quarter, corporates pay 30 percent of their year's overall tax outgo. It is generally taken as a barometer of a company's performance for a particular period.

Since the past many quarters, the I-T Department has not been sharing advance tax numbers.

State-run lender IDBI Bank, however, has paid only Rs 230 crore in advance tax for the fourth quarter, which is 23 percent lower than Rs 298 crore paid in the same period last year, said the sources. In the previous quarter (Q3), the bank had forked out Rs 386 crore to the IT Department.

Mortgage lender HDFC paid 10 percent more at about Rs 550 crore in Q4, up from Rs 500 crore a year ago, while for the full fiscal it has shelled out Rs 2,435 crore, up 12.8 percent from last fiscal's Rs 2,160 crore.

Rural development lender Nabard has paid around Rs 380 crore in the reporting quarter, marginally up from Rs 370 crore, and for the fiscal its outgo stood at about Rs 1,560 crore, up from Rs 1,490 crore, according to the sources.